Introduction

[Richard S]

I am new to this site but not new to dialysis, having been on it for nearly a year now. My name is Richard Smith, I a 88 years of age & with  poor health but a very sound mind. When that starts to go, I want to also. My kidney problems started after I was prescribed Prilosec by my primary care doctor in 2011. After taking it daily for about 8 months, my kidneys failed. I was hospitalized for a week and literally brought back to life. I do not blame my doctor for any of this as it was then not generally known in medical circles that proton pump inhibitors, primarily Prilosec, could cause kidney failure when used for a long period of time in a very small percentage of the population. The good news so to speak was however that during my hospitalization an MRI showed that I also had kidney cancer in one kidney. Thus in April of 2012, that kidney was surgically removed. The one good kidney at that time had a GFR of 30 thanks to the medical care team that treated me.  By 2015, GFR was down to 18 and stayed stable as I had modified my diet. Even so, GFR continued to decline and by the middle of 2021, it was down below 10. At that point my nephrologist told me that I should get ready for dialysis. She had been keeping me off it for 5 years with the help of her dietician & pharmacist  after another doctor wanted me to start dialysis such earlier. I did quite. lot of study and realized that the optimistic & sunny attitudes toward dialysis by the doctors was a little misleading. Of course, they had never undergone the procedure personally. Experience in the last year has not been bad but has not been good either. My blood does not coagulate easily and the I am known as "bleeder" in the dialysis center. The staff there has been very good about it however. The problem for me really is that I spend the best part of every afternoon, 3 days a week basically incapacitated. Audiobooks help the boredom and I enjoy sports on television but I usually feel terrible after dialysis is over for the rest of the day. I know that it keeps me alive & for that I am grateful. I have seen a lot of death in my life and am not afraid of it but I am reluctant to go just yet as long as my mind stays active.

[SooMK]

Welcome Richard! It's nice to have a new person here. I'm sorry for your dialysis experience. I was fortunate to have a pre-emptive transplant and wonder what I would do if I was faced with dialysis. My mother was on dialysis for 7 years before her death and she hated it.

[kristina]

Hello Richard and welcome to IHD and I am very sorry about your dialysis-experience so far and I am wondering whether it might be a good idea to take your dialysis-treatments during the evenings? After all, you could go home to bed straight after your dialysis-treatments and hopefully wake up next morning feeling a little bit better? What do you think?

Best good-luck-wishes from Kristina.

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site Richard


   

[okarol]

Welcome! 
Thanks for sharing your story.
You've been through a lot.
If you're feeling bad after dialysis they may be taking too much fluid. If you're still urinating they need to adjust the default on the machine to filtering only. Maybe ask if you could try that a few times?

[debbiem917@gmail.com]

My daughter was dx with ESRD a little over a year ago. I was on this site before and the information and sharing is so educational and welcomed. Somehow I lost how to get on the site but think I’m back on now.,Technology is difficult for me and navigating this site is to. But I hope to participate.

[iolaire]

My daughter was dx with ESRD a little over a year ago. I was on this site before and the information and sharing is so educational and welcomed. Somehow I lost how to get on the site but think I’m back on now.,Technology is difficult for me and navigating this site is to. But I hope to participate.

Welcome Debbie, all the great resources are still here, and a small group of long timers are standing by if you have questions or want to share.